Workout Wednesday

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I’ve been doing weights down at our apartment fitness center. It’s not a great facility, but it’s better than nothing. I mostly use dumbbells but there are a few machines I use. Generally I don’t care for machines, but they do have their uses.

I like using the lat pull down machine. I have my hands closer together than they usually advise, but if I have them out too far to the sides, it puts more stress on my shoulders. Totally not worth the pain! Now and then I’ll use the rower that’s on the same machine, but if I’m going to do some sort of rowing motion, I like doing something a little more mobile. How do I do that?

We have one of those adjustable cable machines. (This might make a lot more sense with pictures, so bare with me and I’ll do my best to give a good description). I’ll lower one of the arms of the machine all the way down. If I can, I’ll attach the bar from the lat pull down machine to the cable. If I can’t use that, I’ll attach something else I can hold onto. If possible, I’ll lay something on the floor up against the machine. At our old apartment, I would use a weighted plate, but this one doesn’t have plates. Dumbbells don’t quite do the trick. This gives me something to brace my feet against. It also gives me a little more space from the machine so I have a little more range of motion. Then I sit on the floor, grab whatever it is I’m going to hold on to, and row!

For legs, I’ll use the leg press some. The fitness center has one of those leg curl/extension machines, but I really don’t like using those, so I don’t. There’s only so much I can do down there for legs with dumbbells, so my leg days are more to help maintain what I have.